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It may be as cold as heck outside right now, but the Raptors have a warm, fuzzy feeling about being back in Toronto after a tough five-game trip through the Western Conference began to take its toll both mentally and physically.

“It’s pretty good (to be back),” just-named Eastern Conference player of the month Kyle Lowry said. “This time at home will do me good to get back into our whirlpools, our treatment centres. We get a chance to be at home and relax a lot more, get some good food, not eat hotel food all the time. It’s going to be good for me. Honestly, I think guys were ready to come home.”

It won’t hurt them any, either, that DeMar DeRozan appears very close to a return, and just in time for a six-game homestand.

DeRozan was supposed to be available to media on Tuesday after practice, but instead made a trip to the doctor to see if his severe groin strain is finally 100% healed.

The all-star guard has been practising with the team, joined the Raptors on their trip and, if everything is deemed OK by the specialists, coach Dwane Casey said DeRozan could be back in the lineup as early as Thursday night against Charlotte or Saturday against Boston.

“He’s getting there, he’s getting better. I think he’s going to come back aggressive ... but we can’t force him, we have to be patient with him,” Lowry said of DeRozan, whose return can’t come too soon as the Raptors’ record without him and their position in the Eastern Conference have both started to slide. Toronto was 13-3 with DeRozan in the lineup and is now 11-7 without him.

The Raptors certainly could have used him on their western swing, where they went 2-3 and appeared to run out of gas in the final two games.

“No, no, not at all,” Lowry replied when asked if he thought it was a successful trip as, despite the losses, the Raptors took some very good teams down the wire. “We had a losing record. When you have a losing record on a road trip, it’s generally not successful. We won a couple of games, but we wanted more. We wanted to win them all.”

Lowry carried the load, like he has in DeRozan’s absence, but that can’t be expected of him all the time. The Raptors defence was also exposed because, without DeRozan in the lineup, they were forced to play a different kind of ball.

“Since DeMar has gone down, our offensive style has changed a little bit, we’re more of a running team, we play a little faster and, again, I think that affected our defence somewhat,” Casey said. “DeMar coming back will give us more of a slow-down, semi-postup game which in turn will help our defence.

“We had to survive (without DeRozan) and our offence stepped up and carried us in the games we won on the road trip and before that. We had to adjust, and the way we adjusted was playing a little faster which in turn affected our defence. We have to get a little more deliberate, play a style that’s going to travel (work on the road), play a style that’s going to produce in the playoffs.”

So it’s back to basics and at least the Raptors will have a chance to get some proper defensive work in now that they are home. Casey said he would like to see the tenacity they display in practice translate to games.

“Defence is one of those things that slips when you get going for a long period of time without practice. Today was more of a training camp type of practice, which we need more of,” Casey said. “The guys responded and had a good day of practice, but, again, we have to carry that over to the games. Like I challenged the guys today, we should get more emphatic and more upset and teed-off against the other team as we do against each other. If we compete in games the way we compete in practice, we’d be a much more defensive team.”

The Raptors now have six games at home — and hopefully a healthy DeRozan — to implement that strategy.

LOWRY NAMED PLAYER OF MONTH

An even-keeled Kyle Lowry showed some pride in being named the Eastern Conference player of the month on Monday.

“It’s a good award to get,” Lowry said after Raptors practice on Tuesday. “We had a good team month ... It’s cool to get it. It just shows your consistency of a long month and the long grind of a season and for me it just shows the improvement and gives me a little more incentive to work harder.”

With DeMar DeRozan out of the lineup for the entire month on December, Lowry carried the team on his back averaging 22.3 points per game as the Raptors went 11-4.

Lowry also posted six point-assist double-doubles — the third most in the NBA that month — and scored at least 30 points in three contests. He recorded a career-high 39 points in Utah on Dec. 3.

“It’s well-deserved,” coach Dwane Casey said of the award. “He was at the forefront of what we did in December and November, holding down the fort, holding down the No. 1 spot (in the East) for a long period of time. The growth of our team has had a lot to do with his growth, his leadership.”

Lowry currently stands fourth in all-star balloting, something Casey said he was “very surprised” by.

“I hope our fans get out and vote and don’t put it in the hands of the coaches. And if the coaches don’t do it, I’m probably going to get in a physical fight with those guys,” he joked.